A speech by Paul Weiland at his fiftieth birthday party about the story of his Bar Mitzvah on his thirteenth birthday prompted an idea for a film amongst some of the guests. Anticipating a huge party in celebration, at which people would shower him with attention and gifts, he discovered his Bar Mitzvah was scheduled to take place on the same day as the World Cup Final - in the year that England met Germany. Barely anyone showed up and the party was a disaster.
“I had been dreading making a speech", says Paul. "I had been to several fiftieth birthday parties given by distinguished people who had all made great speeches. Leading up to the party I was so preoccupied with what to talk about and all I managed to come up with was the story of what a complete disaster my last big party had been.”
Explains Paul, “Various people had for years encouraged me to do something based around my North London Jewish background. The reaction to my telling the story of my thirteenth birthday was not only a validation of that vulnerable time in my life but also an indication that the story could strike a universal chord.”
Richard Curtis soon came on board to write a treatment. "It was almost a perfect film experience to work with a really close friend to make a film about his life," says Curtis. "I can't remember a film where we laughed more during the process than this one", he continues. Once Paul and Richard were confident that the narrative was strong and the characters clearly drawn, Paul hired Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor, a writing couple with whom he was already developing another project, to write the script. Working Title loved it and committed as soon as they had read it. At this point, they also approached Elizabeth Karlsen to produce. “I read the script and thought it was so well written. It was very charming, very funny, the drama was well constructed, the characters and their voices were very clear”, says Elizabeth. She was as enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with Paul as she was the script. “Paul is fantastically talented and extremely creative and not only did he have a strong vision for the project, but also a real frame of reference - his childhood. I was very happy to come on board.”
The film tells two stories - Bernie planning his elaborate Bar Mitzvah, the only person in England hoping that the England team fail to make the Final; and Manny, Bernie’s anxious and needy Dad, whose grocery business, which he runs with his outgoing brother Jimmy, coming under threat from a new supermarket opening. Central to the story, and what makes it as touching as it is funny, lies the relationship between father and son. Manny’s anxiety - a result of an obsessive-compulsive disorder - gets in the way of him being the Dad Bernie wants him to be. His mother, Esther, is so caught up looking after her needy husband, and worrying about her older son Alvie's unruly behaviour, poor Bernie is mostly ignored. Bernie believes his Bar Mitzvah is about to change all this.
Explains Elizabeth: “It’s such an engaging story. This child, who is looking forward to this moment, which is so important in his life, finds out that it’s going to be ruined by forces beyond his control, and ruined in a way that everyone promised him would never happen. Everyone said don’t worry England will never qualify for the World Cup. And every time there’s a match and England wins, Bernie sees his dream crumbling. Not only is the comedy wonderful, but the emotional moments have a great depth of pain and humanity.”
With the script in place, and a producer on board, the filmmakers turned their attention to the cast.
The Rubens
Eddie Marsan was Paul’s first choice to play the troubled Manny. Struck by Eddie’s moving performance in VERA DRAKE, Paul was in no doubt he wanted him for the role. He had the capacity to convey both the comedic and poignant elements of the story and, physically too, Eddie could credibly play a Jewish character. Says Paul: “I saw Vera Drake and aside from being bowled over by his performance, I thought, my god, he really looks the part. That was very important to me. It had to be believable on all levels. It was very important not to stereotype this family. It’s a film about a Jewish family but mainly a working class family that has a Jewish cultural background. Eddie fitted that bill. He is absolutely perfect.”
Adds Elizabeth: “When we met with Eddie, we thought he was amazing. And he loved the script. That is always a very important element.”
Eddie’s response to the script was as immediate as it was positive. “It’s an honest and beautiful tale,” he says. “When I first met Paul and learned it was his story, I realised why there were so many layers to it. It’s so honest. It struck me as such a universal story with so much to say about families and growing up... “
Eddie was born and bred in the East End of London, an area at one time densely populated by Jewish immigrants. Jewish culture has left its mark on the area and was part of Eddie’s upbringing and he was able to draw on this knowledge and experience to inform the character. Explains Eddie: “I’m not Jewish but I grew up in the East End and my accent is basically the same - just without the Yiddish words. There’s a danger in playing a Jewish character that you create a stereotype. I’m not playing Jewish - I’m playing a man who happens to be Jewish. That comes from the language and the rhythm and not from specific mannerisms or behaviour.”
About the man he plays, Eddie says: “ Manny is a proud man. He’s trying to maintain this aura of somebody who’s respectable; the head of his family but it’s crumbling around him. In that, comic and tragic elements sit side by side and that’s very compelling for an actor to play.”
Working opposite Eddie was a joy for Helena Bonham Carter. “He’s a brilliant actor,” says Helena, “and he certainly makes me a better one. He’s a great minimalist - he appears to be doing very little and it’s so effective. There’s something so touching about him, particularly in this part. I’ve had a great time working with him.”
During the script’s development, Paul began talking to Helena about playing Esther. “There is a remarkable resemblance to my mother as a young woman. She’s also one of our finest actresses and I was so keen for her to do it.” Elizabeth continues: “Helena’s a wonderful actress and we are so fortunate that she accepted the part. We wanted someone who felt real. Helena comes from North London and understands the community depicted in our story. She also brings glamour and star quality to the part.”
“Esther is the engine of the family,” says Helena. “I think the key to Esther is that she puts a brave face on, dealing with disaster upon disaster, but never lets it show. In this way she can keep the family going. She can keep the family together.” She felt a tremendous responsibility to remain true to a character based upon the director’s mother, and likens that experience to ‘walking a tightrope’. She says: “I play a mother who neglects to give her son the attention he craves (albeit because her attention is diverted elsewhere) and Paul wanted me to do that sympathetically. That presented quite a challenge.” Paul’s mother was quite helpful in that process and Helena spent time with her before the shoot. Says Paul: “It was slightly awkward. I hadn’t given my mother the script to read and Helena was giving my mother pages to read so she could hear her voice. My mother was so thrilled it was Helena. It’s such an exposing story about our family and I think having Helena play my mother really helped her accept it. For her, it was the biggest compliment in the world. Helena observes: “She’s an amazing woman. Still so beautiful and glamorous with remarkable posture.”
Eddie has a huge amount of admiration for his co-star: “Working opposite Helena has been a fantastic experience,” remarks Eddie. “She’s the kind of actor who totally inhabits the character she’s playing so even when she’s off set she continues with the accent and rhythm of the character. She soaks everything in. It amazed me.”
Whilst the filmmakers knew early on which actors they wanted for Manny and Esther, casting Bernie was going to be a harder task. They knew what they wanted from the boy who would play him, but they had to find him first. Paul’s main criterion was that a Jewish boy play Bernie. “That was very important for me. I don’t think a boy of that age could play the role with the honesty and texture I knew I’d demand from him unless he was Jewish and could understand something so relevant to a Jewish boy,” says Paul.
With this in mind, casting director Fiona Weir trawled schools, drama clubs, youth clubs, and leafleted the high streets in Jewish communities around London. There were two open casting calls and, all in all, Fiona saw in the region of five thousand kids before narrowing them down to a short list for the filmmakers to see. Says Elizabeth: “Gregg turned up at the last minute, at the final hurdle. We all saw his screen test and were delighted.” Paul adds: “He’s a real, real discovery.”
“It was totally unexpected”, says Gregg about getting the part. “I only attended the audition as a bit of fun. My cousin had heard about the audition and suggested I came along too. Not for a moment did I think I would be playing the lead.”
Playing a leading role in a feature film is a demanding job by any actor’s standard but for a 13 year-old boy who has never acted before it could easily have been an overwhelming one. Paul comments: “He is unbelievable, quite remarkable. He was focused and word-perfect. He understood when the words weren’t right for the character, which is quite extraordinary for a boy who has never acted before”.
Adds Elizabeth: “We chose Gregg because he felt so real and so right. As luck would have it, he turned out to be a very intelligent, perceptive and mature actor, certainly for his age. He has done what a great actor is able to do with a director that is to have a very strong sense of what the director is trying to achieve.” She continues: “Gregg has absolute trust in Paul’s vision. He’s also aware that he’s playing a part of Paul’s past and is very keen to get that right. Fortunately he is very intuitive and has been able to establish a strong bond with Paul.”
Gregg appears in practically every scene shot over an intense and challenging eight-week period. Cast and crew alike felt tremendous warmth towards him. Says Eddie: “He’s very honest. He doesn’t suffer from being self-conscious when he’s acting which is a desirable quality in an actor. He’s very free and he listens to you when you’re acting opposite him. As a person, he’s adorable; he has this great enthusiasm and a good heart. I can’t help but have a parental feeling for him because of the way he is so I find it very easy to play his father in this story.”
Adds Helena: “Gregg is a fast learner and a very good actor. He has such sweetness to him and he’s so malleable because he’s so open. He’s finding it all such fun too so he’s a pleasure to have around, and he has such good manners.”
The experience for Gregg, he says has been ‘amazing’. “I can relate to Bernie because I’m a 13 year-old Jewish boy. I also have an older brother.” “But”, he says, “I’m not a nerd and I get plenty of attention from my family. I can also play football!”
In fact that is something of an understatement. When Gregg’s not at school, he is busy training with West Ham Academy, normally three times a week, with a game on Sundays, though he was not able to play during the shoot in case of injury. “That was probably the hardest part for me,” he says, “not being able to play football.”
The filmmakers were thrilled when Catherine Tate, one of Britain’s most sought after actresses and a household name following the success of The Catherine Tate Show on British television, responded so well to the script. Originally invited to play a cameo role, the filmmakers were delighted that she wanted to play Aunt Lila, Uncle Jimmy’s wife.
“I loved the script.,” says Catherine. “It’s based in truth and that made it a fascinating project for me. I have always enjoyed Jewish humour and Lila is such fun to play.” Remarks Paul: “Lila’s a larger-than-life character and who better to play her than Catherine with her brilliant gift for comedy. She’s also a classically trained actress so we have the best of both worlds.”
Adds Elizabeth: “Catherine is a comic genius. It’s wonderful working with her. She has such presence. She can make you laugh just in the way she uses her eyes, or wrinkles her nose, just simple body language.”
Peter Serafinowicz plays Uncle Jimmy, Manny’s brother, and his total opposite. Says Peter: “Jimmy is outgoing and easy-going. He’s funny - or at least he thinks he is - and everyone loves him.” Peter responded extremely enthusiastically to the script. "I felt it was something really special and I was delighted to be part of it.” Remarks Paul: “Peter has done so much with this character. He’s totally believable, and has been fantastic.”
Ben Newton, who plays Bernie’s older brother Alvie, like Gregg, had also not acted before. He responded to a leaflet given out at school to attend an audition, which he did. It was weeks before he was called back to meet the filmmakers during which time he had dismissed the possibility. He was over the moon when the call came. Elizabeth says: “He had the perfect look, the perfect sneer for the teenage older brother, troubled and troubling...”
The shoot
SIXTY-SIX filmed over eight weeks, on location for the first four, and on sets built at Pinewood Studios for the second half. “Paul had a very strong vision of how the film should look,” says production designer Michael Howells. “Working with him was very interesting because it was not just dealing with ideas, but memories too. We immediately had a bank of information to draw upon. For the Rubens house, Paul’s mother was a fantastic resource for information - and props! She was able to provide us with ornaments, carpets, and even the doorbell of the house Paul grew up in - where she in fact still lives. A greater degree of authenticity is not possible.”
Exterior locations included Craven Cottage, the home ground of Fulham Football Club, where the filmmakers recreated the 1966 Wembley Football Stadium, Old Bethnal Green Town Hall, in the heart of London’s East End, Cockfosters and New Southgate Synagogue, chosen as it was the actual venue for Paul’s Bar Mitzvah, and De Bohun’s School, chosen because it is where Paul went to school.
Summing up, Elizabeth says: “It’s a very personal film but it will strike a universal chord. At the heart of this film is the story of a boy trying to find his voice and reconciling himself with his father. I think that’s something a lot of us experience as we grow up...”
